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Thursday, February 14, 2019

TEMPE, Ariz.—Shohei Ohtani tossed his water bottle toward a clubhouse garbage can and missed, instead landing it in a laundry bin. He laughed out loud, smiled big as he so often does, then retrieved the trash and put it in the proper place.

That’s about as close to throwing as the Japanese two-way star is right now.

Ohtani wouldn’t change how he handled his elbow injury late last year, continuing to hit for the Angels until season’s end even if it meant delaying reconstructive surgery and his ability to pitch again until 2020.

Can’t say that I blame him at all, though I suspect that may be contested logic around these parts.

Friday, February 01, 2019

NEW YORK - AL Rookie of the Year Shohei Ohtani has been medically cleared to resume full-strength training on his right arm following Tommy John surgery, although he will not be ready to hit for the Los Angeles Angels by opening day.

Angels general manager Billy Eppler provided a positive update Thursday on the recovery of his two-way star, who had surgery Oct. 1.

The Angels expect Ohtani to be their designated hitter at some point in 2019, but he will not be active when the Angels open the regular season in late March, Eppler says. Ohtani is not expected to pitch again until 2020.

The Angels need to find new ways to waste the prime of Mike Trout, after all….

Friday, November 23, 2018

A little over a year ago, Nov. 11, 2017, to be exact, Shohei Ohtani strode into a room full of journalists at the Japan National Press Club and told the world he was ready to head to MLB and hoped to one day become the best baseball player in the world.

The Los Angeles Angels star was back in that same room Thursday morning — facing 312 writers, 31 television cameras and 30 photographers — to reflect on a whirlwind rookie season in MLB that ended with him as the 2018 American League Rookie of the Year.

“When I came here a year ago, I was determined to perform as well as I could,” Ohtani said. “It’s been one year since then and I think I was able to have a satisfactory and enjoyable season. After the season, I felt it was a good year and I have a lot of things to build upon for next year.”

Shohei Ohtani reflecting on his last season- would that any talk I gave got that big a crowd….

Tuesday, November 13, 2018

Shohei Ohtani didn’t show anything during spring training. And when he finally got it going for the Los Angeles Angels during the regular-season, the two-way sensation short-circuited, suffering a Grade 3 tear of the ulnar collateral ligament in his right elbow.

Despite it all, Ohtani became the first player since Babe Ruth in 1919 to pitch at least 50 innings and hit 15 home runs in the same season.

For that alone, Ohtani was the well-deserved runaway winner of the Rookie of the Year Award in the American League, now named after the legendary Jackie Robinson.